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Welcome Summer Happy Hour: Mai-Tai

The first big vacation that The Beloved and I ever took together was a trip to Kaua’i. It was truly wonderful and spectacular. One of our favorite things was after a day of sightseeing, or a day of sitting on the lanai reading was to make a pitcher of mai-tais.

Mai tais

In fact, those mai-tais were important, because they were really the first cocktails that we made together.

Since we decided that we might feature rum drinks this summer, I thought it was time to break out the mai-tai again. Now, there are probably as many mai-tai recipes as there are bartenders out there (you can find the most standard recipe here), but here is mine*:

1.5 oz light rum

1 oz lime juice

0.5 oz orgeat syrup (only non-negotiable ingredient besides rum)

0.5 oz citronage (or triple sec)

1 oz orange juice

Mix together in a (large) tumbler, add ice. Top with a 1 oz floater of your favorite dark rum. Garnish with pineapple, citrus wedges or just plain-old cherries… the more celebratory, the better :)

Mai-tai

The Aerie might not have the views of that house in Kaua’i, but they’ll do in a pinch and this drink always takes me back there a little bit.

Here’s to summer!

*I choose to switch out the simple syrup for orange juice, which makes the drink less sweet and more full-bodied.